Sorry if this has been answered, but can you retain salary/cap hit for only a certain number of years? Say we traded Richie, can we retain a couple million for 2 years, and then his new club takes over the full contract after that?
Also, can salary retainment be used as a condition? i.e., Rangers will retain 3m of Gaborik's salary this year and if Gaborik fails to meet "x" level of production this year for his new team, the Rangers will be on the hook for 2m next year.
So much of this salary retainment stuff is still unclear, I'm sure there's a loophole here somewhere